


Aloft On Scorching Wings

by Alley_Walk (AlleyWalk_writes)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Canidae, Casteism, Celestians, Child Abuse, Corvids, F/F, Fantasy setting, Humans, Lesbian Snark, Magic, Multi, Original Character(s), POV Multiple, POV Original Female Character, Sarcastic Genet, Smart mouthed Asha, Trans Female Character, Violence, and everyone is gay, sass eating panthers, sort of like daemons but different
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21692602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlleyWalk_writes/pseuds/Alley_Walk
Summary: Genet Byrne has had a few problems in her life lately. They include but are not limited to:1. A crush on a girl (maybe two) who are both way out of her league.2. A mother who hates her for being alive.3. It being, also, consequently, her fault for being alive.4. Somehow gaining access to a mysterious magical ability for which a giant sass-eating panther may or may not want to kill her for.5. Gaining the attention of some shady organizations because of this power, for which Genet regrets all of her life choices.Maybe it’s time to go to plan B and go live as a hermit.
Relationships: Genet Byrne & Asha, Genet Byrne & Blake Dubois, Genet Byrne & Sylph, Genet Byrne/Asha/Blake Dubois
Kudos: 3





	Aloft On Scorching Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, ya'll!
> 
> This is a new original work of mine, so I'm nervous and kinda excited. I've never posted an original work before or written one in a while, so I hope it comes out okay! ^_^;
> 
> Also, because I am a huge supporter of trans and gay rights and the LGBTQ community in general, this tends to reflect in my fanfiction. So being, the main character in this is trans female. Anyone who doesn't like that can take their bigoted views elsewhere.
> 
> With that said, please enjoy! ^_^

Chapter 1: Simmer

* * *

Genet Byrne digs her furred talons into the treebark beneath her feet, her fingers digging into the smooth bark and her powerful legs poised to leap as her tail lashes through the air. Her wings were fully extended, their pitiful length shown for all to see, as long as a person’s arm if you included her flight feathers, the wing bones spanning half of that. But as she looks down at the ground below her, the wind rushing through her hair and carding cool hands through her feathers, all she can feel is exhilaration. 

The trees of Fyrcraw loom large around her, with the Corvid’s houses built directly around the trunks of the trees with rope bridges leading to different rooms or to different places, the houses becoming smaller and smaller the higher up the trunk they go. Foliage rustles bringing scents of berries and rich fruits, the smell of human cookfires below being carried on the wind. Below them are the human dwellings, one to two story houses made mostly of wood much like the Corvid’s houses were, with roofs made out of hay or mud. It was what made it necessary to cook outside rather than indoors, though it often made Genet wish she could steal a bite of that roast boar. For experimental reasons, of course.

Grabbing the glowing silver clouded leopard at her side, Genet holds her tightly in her arms and grins down at the Celestian, the manifestation of her soul looking up at her long-sufferingly. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we won’t almost-die this time,” Genet says with a grin that has absolutely _no_ recklessness at all. Why would she think that? She’s a perfectly responsible person. Yup. That’s her, alright.

Sylph looks at her with her dark blue eyes, her glow flickering with her exasperation. 

“Alright, let’s go!”

Genet leaps from her perch and opens her wings wide, feeling as they cup the air. Hope alights itself in her chest for the briefest of moments, and she allows herself to smile. But then she registers that her fall is not slowing. She flaps her wings desperately, trying to gain lift, but she’s still spirally hopelessly towards the ground. No, this can’t be like the last few times, she’s tried to hard-! The ground slams into Genet before she can even register that she’s reached it, and she sits up and spits out a clod of dirt, glaring down at the ground balefully. 

“Well that didn’t go so well,” says a familiar voice, amused.

Genet looks over towards the source of the voice, her wings hunching in defensively, only to relax when she sees who it is. The human standing over Genet is about her age, with dark wine colored eyes and snow white hair with a slight natural curl that was cut short, bangs curving dramatically over her right eye where an ugly warped scar cut diagonally across her face. 

Her name is Asha, and other than Sylph she’s one of the only tolerable people she has in her life.

Genet huffs indignantly, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s not my fault that the Sky hates me.”

“Indeed not.” Asha says, and Genet can hear the smirk in her voice. Genet looks up to scowl at her, but Asha is already moving away into the depths of the human settlement. Genet follows. As she walks through the human settlement, her talons digging into the earth, her keen ears pick up on what the humans are saying about her. She catches the nasty looks they throw at her and glares balefully back, that is until Sylph meows plaintively at her, hovering in the air behind her shoulder. With a sigh Genet picks up her pace. 

She enters the richer parts of the city, where the houses broaden, turning to stone instead of mud or wood. She finally catches up with Asha with minimal rocks being thrown or slurs being sent her way, (at least as is usual whenever she decides to visit Asha in the human settlement), and enters the familiar stone house on her heels. The familiar smell of old books and warm spices fills the air, and Genet takes a moment to reorient herself in her surroundings. The house being made out of stone instead of wood meant it was really large, at least in Genet’s eyes. On the wall beside the entrance is a crackling hearthfire, the flames having run low in Asha’s absence. A couch and a few armchairs sit in front of it along with an oval wooden coffee table, with two bookcases against one wall filled with books that Genet has never bothered to ///////(can’t)//// read. 

There is a small kitchen in the corner with a table and a few chairs, and in another corner is a mattress laying on the floor. What really draws Genet’s attention, though, is the Caniden sitting on the couch. She has long black hair that’s been pulled up in a braid, with golden eyes that scan over the book that she’s reading, her wolf ears twitching on her head with her tail curled up beside her. 

Genet thinks that she’s very pretty, for a Caniden.

A small golden armadillo is curled up on her lap, and Slyph’s ears perk up with interest from where she’s sitting half perched on Genet’s shoulder. Asha sweeps in from the kitchen with her coyote Celestian Ghost in tow, a tray with three cups of green tea and some sort of breaded thing that must be imported from Kireden making Genet’s mouth water. (But then, Asha always has had it better than others, even when living _here_.) 

“Come on in and sit down.” Asha says, and Genet reluctantly sits next to New Girl, tucking her wings in so they don’t brush against her. “Blake. _Blake_.” New Girl (Blake?) finally looks up from her book, her eyes flicking to the side as she takes in Genet on one side, and then Asha on the other.

She raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

Asha smirks. “This is how Corvids dress here, Blake. You’re going to have to get used to it if you want to stay here.” She teases.

Genet looks down at herself. Is there something wrong with what she’s wearing? All she’s wearing is her _saia_ , the thin black pants stopping at the ankle with the half see-through skirt splitting down the middle, trailing behind her in a wave of fabric. The rest is just her stomach and her breast, covered in blood red feathers. Corvids don’t have milk glands like humans do, but rather the breast bones of their bird cousins, so maybe she’s offended by that?

Genet gives New Girl an offended look right back, and she blushes and buries her face in her book, mumbling an apology. Asha chuckles, making Genet bristle. “This is Blake Dubios, by the way.” Asha introduces, popping one of the rounded breaded things into her mouth. “Blake, this is Genet Byrne.” Blake simply nods to her, so Genet grins back.

Figuring that that’s as good a signal as any to start eating, Genet picks one up and takes a bite without hesitation. Delightful flavor explodes in her mouth, and she soon devours it and picks up two more, contemplating hoarding them in her pockets for later. 

Blake lifts an eyebrow. “You know that could have been poisoned, right?”

Genet shrugs. “Then I guess I’m dead.” _It’s not like that really matters._

Blake squints at her. “You’re absolutely fearless, aren’t you?”

Genet grins at her with another delicious morsel half chewed in her mouth. “Aren’t you?”

Blake frowns, her ears pulled half back. “I don’t think being completely fearless is a _good_ thing.” She says, burying her nose back in her book.

And awkward silence ensues during which Genet devours the last of the rounded breaded treats, finally able to identify that there (might?) have been some sort of meat in them. She finally picks up her lukewarm green tea just as something to do, even though she hates green tea no matter how much sugar or cream or other human concocted sweet things that Asha has tried putting in it to make her like it. She seems rather determined in that area, and since Asha is /////(wonderful)///// one of the least annoying people she’s met, Genet would much rather keep her around than drive her away. 

Plus, she had been the first person to accept Genet for who she was.

Genet at sixteen years old had been standing and taking a piss in Asha’s miracle chamberpot. The chamberpot was in fact, a chamberpot, but it was one of the miraculous inventions that the humans and Canidae always came up with because of their magic, the waste disappearing as if it never were seconds after it touched the bottom. Genet was just wondering what would happen if she put her foot inside when Asha opened the door to the bathroom.

“Hey Genet-” She blinked and looked down. “Oh, so you’re a boy then?” She asked curiously.

Genet hurriedly stuffed herself back inside her _saia_ , her face burning hotly as she demanded furiously, “Does this look like a _beirar_ to you?!” Asha blinked. The words may sound strange to a human but it was true. _Beirar’s_ were worn by men, the pants stopping midway down the calf with the skirt being knee length. _Saia’s_ went all the way to the ankle and the skirt flowed down to midway down the calf, and were worn by women. 

Asha blinked. “Oh, okay.” She smirked. “So are you going to come out here so I can trounce you at knife throwing again, or…?”

Genet stomped her foot. “You do _not_ ‘trounce me!’” 

She shifts awkwardly in her seat now as the silence stretches on, clacking her talons against the wooden floor. Asha seems to be enjoying the silence, which is something Genet rarely does. Finally, she can’t take it anymore. “Hey, do you two wanna come up in the Nests with me?”

Blake looks up with a frown. “The Nests were for the Corvids, I thought.”

“Only if you’re not invited by a Corvid,” Genet says.

Which Genet technically isn’t, so don’t get caught.

Blake looks thoughtful. “I’ve always been curious.” She admits.

Genet grins.

* * *

“You know for someone who’s never climbed a tree before, you two are oddly good at this.” Genet remarks to Asha and Blake, balancing on the branch below them in order to catch them should they fall. Ghost and Sylph and Blake’s armadillo, Romeo have retreated inside their bodies for now, Genet can feel Sylph curled up comfortably inside her breast, making warmth flood through her. Genet supposes that the fact that Ghost can retreat inside of Asha at all is a mark of how close they are compared to other human and Celestian pairs, though Asha is always vague about how they came to be that way.

Asha looks down, giving her a devilish smile. “Who says I haven’t?” Blake stays silent, leaping agilely onto the next branch.

Winding her way through the thinning branches with lupine grace, Genet sits on a branch beside Asha and smiles at her. “Well, I’d say you have.”

Asha smirks and continues up the branch. 

They keep climbing and eventually stumble upon some uva berries, stripping them carefully off the prickly vines and storing them in their leather slings. Genet pops one of the purple berries into her mouth, the sweet taste bursting on her tongue, and Blake laughs and does the same, Asha smirking. They eventually come across some pyrus leaves, and while they only taste passingly of pears they’re still filling enough that they take most of it, leaving just enough for it to grow back for some other forager to find. 

It’s a beautiful day out, rays of sunshine breaking through the canopy overhead, fingers of light illuminating everything they touch. A pleasant breeze blows through the trees, whisking through Genet’s hair and carding cool fingers through her fur and feathers. Sunlight dapples on the ground below, lighting the leaves of the trees yellow and orange, the larger than life Auctumnus trees casting stark shadows in the morning light. The scents of soap and freshly cut wood emanate from the Corvid and human settlements above and below, reminding Genet that it’s washing day and her mother will have her head if she doesn’t use the wash water that every Corvid and human family is allocated from the underground reservoir. 

They’re running across a rope bridge, challenging each other to see who can get to the other side first, when they bump straight into a Corvidknight. 

_Oh shit, it’s a patrolhen._

The patrolhen has the markings of a bluejay, including her dark hair and light blue eyes. She eyes them suspiciously, her perfectly proportioned wings flaring slightly in aggression. Genet can see the exact moment the hen looks her over and figures out exactly what she is; Corvidae, not Corvid. Outcast, not flock. Her eyes sharpen with suspicion, and she looks them over, Asha and Blake mostly hidden behind Genet but their foreignness abundantly clear. The hen snaps out, “what in the name of Earth and Sky are you doing, _hybrid_?” 

Genet bristles defensively. Asha walks forward, her movements smooth and lithe like a stalking panther’s as she asks dangerously, “ _What_ did you just say?” 

Before any violence can be done Genet is taking her and Blake by the hand, hiking them up over her shoulders as she turns and runs in the opposite direction, leaping off of the rope bridge with Blake screaming in her ears and just barely catching onto a tree branch with her talons. Her legs jar painfully, and then she’s up and running again, with a feeling that this can’t possibly end well.

* * *

Her mother’s face is carved of stone when they finally let Genet out of her jail cell, free on bail. A Caniden with dark hair and sharp green eyes had come to bail out Asha (Blake had somehow disappeared without them, the traitor), about thirty minutes into their mutual stay in Boresville. He’d gotten a wolf’s ears and tail out of the whole shitty half-breed deal, but otherwise could have passed for human if he had chosen to. Genet envied him for that. 

He _had_ asked her if she had someone who could bail her out, though. Genet had turned him down, though reluctantly. She knew her mother would come for her. ( ~~Probably~~ ). So when her mother had come for her, hours later, she was ( ~~only a little~~ ) surprised. But she forgave her. She had probably been busy doing the day’s washing. 

Genet stands when the door opens and her black _saia_ catches on something, the long back ripping as she stands to her full diminutive height. Her mother’s nostrils flare, and she says, “come, Genet.”

They make it back to their house up near the top of one of the large tree trunks, the rickety structure swaying slightly with the wind as they enter the small entryway. From there they walk into the dining room where her mother looks at her expectantly. Realizing what she wants, Genet withholds a wince. She swallows. She has to say this just right, think, what does she want to hear? “I’m sorry, mother. I tried really hard today, and I would have gotten double the load that I usually got with those… _human’s_ help, but the Corvidknights made me give it up in order to contact you.”

Mother’s face hardens. “If you’re going to blame me for this, then go out there and start foraging. I want food on the table before dark, are we clear?”

Genet nods, looking down at her talons digging into the floor.

“I said, are we _CLEAR_?” 

Genet nods. “Yes‘m.” Rushing for her backup sling, Genet slings it over her shoulder and goes out the door. 

Outside, the sun is setting, just bare fingers of light left peeking through the trees. Moonlight is easy to follow with a Corvid's sharp eyes however, and with lupine hearing and smell added to the mix she shouldn't have too many problems. 

But Genet is weary from the long run from the Corvidknights and the stressors of the day, and all she really wants to do is take a bath and go to bed. So it's as she's jumping from branch to branch over the underground reservoir that she slips and falls off the tree branch, and then she slams into the ground, crying out in pain as something breaks inside her. And that's when she hits the water.

Genet thrashes in the water as pain throbs deep in her chest, choking as she’s pulled under. She kicks her feet desperately to reach the surface, water getting into her nose and eyes as she struggles to hold her breath. Her head breaches the surface and she takes a deep gulp of air before she’s dragged back under again, and she realizes that her wings are saturated with water, pulling her inexorably beneath the surface of the water. Her struggles become more desperate after that, throwing away her pride to yell weakly for help every time her head reaches the surface.

No one comes and soon she’s being dragged under, bubbles passing in her wake as she’s pulled beneath the surface. She holds her breath, looking around for something, anything that might save her. And that’s when she sees it. If she didn’t have Corvidae sight, she probably would have missed it completely. But there, in the wall below her, is a slightly hidden opening glowing with a faint blue light. Kicking with her legs and paddling with her arms, she swims towards it, her chest aching and her lungs beginning to burn with the strain of holding her breath for so long. It was a good thing she had the breast and lungs of a Corvid, otherwise she would never have survived this long. 

Genet eventually reaches the opening and claws at it with her own two hands. There’s resistance, and then it opens, causing the water of the reservoir to flood into it with a force that pulls Genet with it. The glow grows brighter as she shoots through a stone tunnel, and then her lungs are burning, and she breathes in some of the water on reflex. Energy and life flood through her, power racing through her veins, hot and seductive. And then there’s a sharp turn in the tunnel, and there’s pain, and then darkness.

* * *

Isoke prowls around the confines of her prison, restless and bored. Granted, her prison is more unique than a normal _twoleg_ prison normally would be, but that’s besides the point. Isoke takes a look at her now maddeningly familiar surroundings. 

The space is large and vast, even by a giant panther’s standards. It’s a prodigious and wide open cave system, with a forest of immense trees and grass covered ground that Isoke has often used as entertainment to make the long immeasurable years not completely droll. Soft moss covers the stone floor leading onward with small glowing blue mushrooms and stalactites and stalagmites interrupting what could have been a perfectly orderly nest.

The mushrooms grow larger and larger as they progress towards the most important part of the cave, their light illuminating everything around it. Smooth moss covered rocks large and small lead up to a glimmering pool of water. Sometimes, when Isoke looks into the pool, she imagines she can see a galaxy of stars.

The Oasis was why she was here in the first place. Everything she was, everything she is was for the sake of this Oasis.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She had changed, over the years. 

But that was hardly her fault.

Isoke’s ears suddenly prick, and she stands, slinking low with her belly to the ground as she hears a disturbance from within the pool. Water sloshes to the surface and then a twoleg comes bobbing to the surface, its odd light brown skin pale and its eyes closed. Isoke can hear the faint fluttering of a heartbeat, and she tilts her head consideringly. 

She could let the twoleg die. She really sees no need for it to live and be able to witness this place, not after what after the _others_ had done. But then, she needs to know how the twoleg got here in the first place. There’s only one entrance and exit point that she knows of, and it’s been locked away by twoleg hands for seasons. So it would be smarter to keep this twoleg alive, at least until she found out where it entered the Oasis from. 

And then, after killing and eating it, perhaps she could escape.

Satisfied with her plan, Isoke pulls the wet and bedraggled twoleg out of the water and drops it none too gently onto the moss covered stones. This, at least, seems to wake it up, coughing up water with its blood long blood red fur streaming water down its face. Its slate grey eyes survey its surroundings with wide eyes, its furless cheeks dotted with some sort of red markings shaped much like bird’s eggs. As it gets to its feet Isoke notices the vibrant red plumage on its breast and the ripped black cloth it’s wearing, with red fur on its legs, a red tail, and sharp talons with the left one missing a toe. It’s wings are red and black and saturated with water, looking much too small to carry the twoleg’s weight.

( ~~Not that Isoke can blame (( **her** )) _it_ for that. It was simply a fault of (( **her** )) _its_ birth, much like it was a fault of Isoke’s birth to be here, forever trapped in a cage ~~).

The twoleg has finally managed to stand on its own two feet and has cranked its puny neck up and up and up so it can look Isoke in the face. Isoke gives a cat-like smirk, her large claws scraping into the rock as she waits for the human to quail, to step backward in fear like the rest had _before_ , always looking at her with wariness, never quite trusting her.

(And how she had enjoyed that fear. Until suddenly she hadn’t).

But this twoleg looks at her with not an ounce of fear in its… her eyes, and Isoke is strangely glad of it. “Hey,” the twoleg says, with a grin.

“Hello,” Isoke purrs, silky, smooth and deadly as a rattlesnake as she sinks down further to the ground on her front paws while showing off her rather impressive fangs. “And just how exactly have you come to be in my den, little twoleg?”

The twoleg’s eyes become flinty. “And what would I get in return for telling you this information?” 

Isoke rears back with a hiss, her ears pinned to the back of her skull. “No! Never again will twoleg hands touch the waters of magicae unda!” She roars, her voice furious as it echoes off the walls of the cavern.

Snarling, she pounces, her huge paws easily clutching the twoleg underneath her, her claws digging into its collarbone and wings. It screams, and then suddenly scorching heat and flame surge out from underneath Isoke’s paws.

* * *

Genet feels warm. That’s the first thing she registers when she’s no longer pinned underneath the enormous panther’s paws. The comforting warmth spreads all throughout her body, leeching away the cold and pain that had been caused by the apparently super-special pool of water she had nearly drowned in. Then she notices the second thing. Her form is wreathed in black and blood red flames, spiralling and intertwining over her form, licks of fire snaking in the air around her. 

She feels no fear as she looks down at them, but there’s no time to contemplate as the giant panther swings a gigantic paw at her. Genet runs to the side but finds her surroundings blurring around her, and when she stops she’s nearly fallen into the pool again. 

Genet takes a deep breath and grins.

Alright. Let’s do this. 

Running forward with her heart pounding in her chest, a manic grin on her face as the world blurs around her, she jumps as fast as lightning as the black panther’s colossal paw swings towards her, misjudging her jump and brushing right against the gargantuan panther’s face. She roars in pain, the sound ringing in Genet’s ears, and then Genet lands on the ground and is up and running again, the world blurring into incomprehensible colors around her.

She pays attention to her hearing and sense of smell instead, and can tell when she enters a copse of trees right when she hits a tree face first. The tree cracks under the force of her momentum, and Genet shakes her head, dazed, realizing that the fire around her has gone out. 

_What now?_

Sniffing, a tingling sensation enters her nose, and she sneezes.

Hearing a crash and a roar behind her, she decides to risk it.

She soon comes upon a staircase carved out of rock, and quickly ascends to find a wall with odd markings etched into it. It’s oddly smooth for a piece of rock, and Genet runs a hand across it. The runes light up a brilliant blue, and seams appear in the rock, creating a doorway that quickly pushes inward and shifts to the side.

Not questioning her luck, Genet runs as fast as her normal speed will take her, bypassing room after room covered with layers of dust, entering a long stone tunnel before she finally opens a door that leads–

–straight to hell.

Or rather, a place close to it. She was stepping in what she judged as waves and waves of shit, at least according to her nose. And she was in some kind of… tunnel? Looking around, she eventually spotted a way up and out, pushing a round metal cover out of her way and stepping into the night. She immediately bumps into someone, a Canidae by the looks of him. He looks at her with pity and asks, “Your Master accidentally flush some rare jewels down the toilet?”

Genet gives an assent, though she’s not really listening. She looks around herself with something akin to awe and horror. Around her the town bustles with activity. The houses are made of brick and stone, and they’re not houses, Genet realizes, but shops. Things are advertised ostentatiously in huge glass windows, more items than Genet could ever hope to own on racks or shelves inside. There are streetlights lining the streets and the road is paved beneath her feet. This is the town, the _city_ , of Kireden.

Well, fuck.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, she's fucked.
> 
> Edit 2/10/2020: Also, a note on the species of Corvids; All Corvids have slightly rounded chests with plumage on them (not unlike a bird's) so that their bird-like anatomy can make room for their lungs and their anterior and posterior air sacs. (I know that just made me sound smart or all know-it-all-ish, but I literally just looked all that up on the internet, like, two minutes ago, lol).
> 
> Anyway.
> 
> Comments? 
> 
> Kudos?
> 
> See y'all next chapter! ^_^


End file.
